Re: DeCSS and first sale
At 1:08 PM +0100 9/7/2000, Ben Laurie wrote: >John R Levine wrote: >> CSS is entirely about subverting first sale, since the only useful >>thing that >> the CSS crypto does is to assign each DVD a "region code" so that >>the DVD can >> only be played on players with the same region code. (As has been widely >> noted, if you want to pirate a DVD, you just copy the bits, no crypto >> needed.) The reason that they use region codes is that movies may already be >> on DVD in the US while still in theatres in Europe, or vice versa, and they >> want to prevent people from sending DVDs from one place to the other and >> undermining theatre revenues. If I were the movie industry, I'd want to >> prevent it, too, but if I were a judge interpreting the copyright law, I'd >> look to the first sale doctrine and say "tough noogies". > >That's not quite the only reason for region codes: regional price >differentials are also important to revenue. :-) > I think the issue of enforcing foreign censorship is important too. Here is the main part of my comment to the LOC on this matter: http://www.loc.gov/copyright/reports/studies/dmca/reply/Reply014.pdf "...The technical protection measures that DCMA addresses can also be used by foreign governments to prevent unwanted content from being viewed by its residents. This is the digital-millennium equivalent of the jamming of Radio Free Europe during the Cold War. An attempt by a US Citizen to bypass those measures, for example by buying a DVD movie about Tibet and re-coding it so that it is playable by a Chinese-zoned DVD player, could be prosecuted under DCMA as an act of circumvention. The tools for producing such a re-coded DVD are similarly proscribed under this law, as interpreted by its supporters and US District Judge Kaplan. Here is the testimony of Dean Marks, Senior Counsel, Intellectual Property for Time Warner, given at the Stamford Library of Congress hearing on DCMA (transcript page 262): 1 MR. MARKS: Another reason why we need 2 regional coding, why we do regional coding is that 3 the law in various territories is different with 4 regard to censorship requirements. So we cannot 5 simply distribute the same work throughout the world 6 in the same version. Local laws impose censorship 7 regulations on us that require us to both exhibit 8 and distribute versions of the films that comply 9 with those censorship requirements. The DCMA makes violations of the censorship laws of every dictatorship in the world enforceable against US Citizens in US Courts. This violates the 'first sale' doctrine and is an outrage in a country that professes to promote freedom throughout the world." Arnold Reinhold
Re: DeCSS and first sale
John R Levine wrote: > CSS is entirely about subverting first sale, since the only useful thing that > the CSS crypto does is to assign each DVD a "region code" so that the DVD can > only be played on players with the same region code. (As has been widely > noted, if you want to pirate a DVD, you just copy the bits, no crypto > needed.) The reason that they use region codes is that movies may already be > on DVD in the US while still in theatres in Europe, or vice versa, and they > want to prevent people from sending DVDs from one place to the other and > undermining theatre revenues. If I were the movie industry, I'd want to > prevent it, too, but if I were a judge interpreting the copyright law, I'd > look to the first sale doctrine and say "tough noogies". That's not quite the only reason for region codes: regional price differentials are also important to revenue. :-) Cheers, Ben. -- http://www.apache-ssl.org/ben.html Coming to ApacheCon Europe 2000? http://apachecon.com/
Re: DeCSS and first sale
[ I was at the beach, catching up now ] > > It is a test of will and power. Kaplan took offense at the widespread > > attitude that such an act was beyond the power of a judge, that judges not > > only should not censor thei internet, but that they *could* not censor the > > internet, that the internet was stronger than the judiciary. > > He's welcome to take offense. He's even welcome to take action. But > in the end, has he been successful? Will he ever be successful? I agree that it was a poor idea to taunt the judge, but a key point that most people seem to be missing is that anti-DeCSS has nothing to do with fair use, practically nothing to do with piracy, but a great deal to do with the critical but poorly understood first sale doctrine, so the judge's decision is flatly wrong on fundamental legal principles. First sale says that once the copyright owner has sold a copy of something, he has no further claim on it other than to prohibit making further copies. This is why there's a market in used books and videotapes, why there are public libraries, why there is a video rental industry, and why you can import a lower priced foreign edition of a book or CD even if there's a domestic edition. Publishers hate first sale even more than fair use, and you often see fatuous complaints about the revenue "lost" to sales of used books. CSS is entirely about subverting first sale, since the only useful thing that the CSS crypto does is to assign each DVD a "region code" so that the DVD can only be played on players with the same region code. (As has been widely noted, if you want to pirate a DVD, you just copy the bits, no crypto needed.) The reason that they use region codes is that movies may already be on DVD in the US while still in theatres in Europe, or vice versa, and they want to prevent people from sending DVDs from one place to the other and undermining theatre revenues. If I were the movie industry, I'd want to prevent it, too, but if I were a judge interpreting the copyright law, I'd look to the first sale doctrine and say "tough noogies". The first sale doctrine is under attack in many ways under the guise of "digital rights management", attempting to treat material as leased to people with limited rights, rather than sold with full rights, even though the transaction is handled as a sale. It's one of the sleaziest ways that crypto is being used today. Regards, John Levine, [EMAIL PROTECTED], Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies", Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://iecc.com/johnl, Sewer Commissioner Finger for PGP key, f'print = 3A 5B D0 3F D9 A0 6A A4 2D AC 1E 9E A6 36 A3 47
